Welcome to the Truth@Life Blog Site by Curtis Songer


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There are 5 threads of thought in this blog site:
1. Church Stuff - things pertaining to the evangelical Christian Church of today
2. Leadership Corner - concepts on management & leadership
3. Two Becoming One - principles of marriage enrichment
4. Train Up a Child - principles of parenting
5. Personal Thoughts - my mental ramblings on how God is growing me

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Sunday, March 27, 2011

Teenagers and College Students Today Have Accepted a Life of Mediocrity

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
1 Timothy 4:12


Our society and the media today lulls teenagers and college students into a life of mediocrity and conformity. But I recently ran across the work of a couple of teens, Alex & Brett Harris, that call their fellow teens to rise above all that and to create a counter-culture of doing great things, to recognize their personal calling and life-mission, and to create a ‘rebelution’. The official definition of the 'rebelution' is "a teenage rebellion against low expectations." When you look around today, our culture does not expect much of young people. They are not only expected to do very little that is wise or good, but they're expected to do the opposite. Our media-saturated youth culture is constantly reinforcing lower and lower standards and expectations. For more on their work, read on…

The word 'rebelution' is a combination of the words "rebellion" and "revolution." So it carries a sense of an uprising against social norms. But in this case, it's not a rebellion against God-established authority, but against the low expectations of our society. It's a refusal to be defined by our ungodly, rebellious, and apathetic culture. Actually, we like to think of it as rebelling against rebellion.

And it's exciting, because the Rebelution has become a type of counter-cultural youth movement among young people from around the world, who are not only rejecting the lies of popular youth culture, but they're returning to biblical and historical levels of character and competence.

In 1 Timothy 4:12, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy, "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." In other words, as young people we are called to be exemplary in all areas of life. Our generation is falling incredibly short of that calling. Instead of serving as the launching pad of life, the teen years are seen as a vacation from responsibility. We call it the "myth of adolescence." And the Rebelution is all about busting that myth.

Our battle cry is just three words, but it's an explosive concept: Do Hard Things. That's it. And "do hard things" is a mentality. It's a mentality that flies right in the face of low expectations. The world says, "You're young, have fun!" It tells us to "obey your thirst" and "just do it." Or it tells us, "You're great! You don't need to exert yourself." But those kinds of mindsets sabotage character and competence.

Do Hard Things is just the opposite. It's how we build character and competence. It won't drop to meet the low expectations, it won't just do what comes easily, and it won't become complacent. It applies no matter who you are or what level you're on, because there's always something harder to do, something that will take you outside your comfort zone and cause you to grow.

The Rebelution is made up of three fundamental parts. We've talked about character and competence. The third is collaboration. It's not enough for us to be individual exceptions. We have to create a counterculture. We do that is by networking and encouraging one another in our common cause. That's what the Rebelution has become. When you have a community of young people committed to doing hard things for the glory of God and the good of others, that's an incredibly powerful thing.

For more of the history and message of the Rebelution, check out the blog at http://www.therebelution.com/

Please comment below or email me personally at curtis.songer@gmail.com

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Songer Family Update - Part 3

For whomever is interested in keeping up with the Songer family and our prayer requests... David is doing exceedingly well at CMU. Swimming pain free at the collegiate competitive level and, after almost 2 years, has all A's and 1 B. Jonathan is doing incredibly well in swimming and is beginning to be sought after by college coaches. Please pray fopr continued character development. Abigail is continuing her training at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, but has decided to pursue physical therapy in college. Lydia is played high school JV basketball as a freshman at NASH and is now playing AAU basketball, despite being out for over 2 months from a bad case of mono - more time is required for full recovery so she could use your continued prayers. Daniel is doing very well in swimming and his homeschool studies. However, he is undergoing the same challenges any adolescent boy is going through. Joel is Joel. Doing fine - especially thrilled with home school and learning right now. Martha is experiencing the typical stresses of any mother of 6 that is homeschooling, has 4 teenagers, and a husband who is working in the corporate world - she needs your prayers the most. I recently posted on my blog site my personal situation and feelings. I would refer you to that blog posting for a very transparent view into my life: http://nccxpastor.blogspot.com/ "Where Have I Been"

Please comment below or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com

Friday, March 25, 2011

Where Have I Been?

Everyone is asking....where have I been? Where do I start? I have been so completely overwhelmed by my new job. As a family, we have all been growing accustomed to having me back in the corporate world. I remember there was soooo much concern expressed about how the transistion would be so difficult to ministry. NOT! I loved every day of it. The toughest transition of my life was back to the corporate world. Can't understand why God has led me back here, but this seems to be where he obviously wants me for the time being. Sometimes confused, sometimes bitter. Then I remind myself Jesus got only 3 years of ministry and I got 2! what a comparison - I was so fortunate. Who am I to complain? They were the best 2 years of my life!!!